Leon Trotsky: The Transitional
programme

Expropriation of Separate Groups of
Capitalists

The socialist program of expropriation, i.e., of political overthrow of the
bourgeoisie and liquidation of its economic domination, should in no case during
the present transitional period hinder us from advancing, when the occasion
warrants, the demand for the expropriation of several key branches of industry
vital for national existence or of the most parasitic group of the bourgeoisie.

Thus, in answer to the pathetic jeremiads of the gentlemen democrats anent
the dictatorship of the "60 Families" of the United States or the
"200 Families" of France, we counterpose the demand for the
expropriation of those 60 or 200 feudalistic capitalist overlords.

In precisely the same way, we demand the expropriation of the corporations
holding monopolies on war industries, railroads, the most important sources of
raw materials, etc.

The difference between these demands and the muddleheaded reformist slogan of
"nationalization" lies in the following: (1) we reject
indemnification; (2) we warn the masses against demagogues of the People's Front
who, giving lip service to nationalization, remain in reality agents of capital;
(3) we call upon the masses to rely only upon their own revolutionary strength;
(4) we link up the question of expropriation with that of seizure of power by
the workers and farmers.

The necessity of advancing the slogan of expropriation in the course of daily
agitation in partial form, and not only in our propaganda in its more
comprehensive aspects, is dictated by the fact that different branches of
industry are on different levels of development, occupy a different place in the
life of society, and pass through different stages of the class struggle. Only a
general revolutionary upsurge of the proletariat can place the complete
expropriation of the bourgeoisie on the order of the day. The task of
transitional demands is to prepare the proletariat to solve this problem. [Back
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Expropriation of the Private Banks and
State-ization of the Credit System

Imperialism means the domination of finance capital. Side by side
with the trusts and syndicates, and very frequently rising above them, the banks
concentrate in their hands the actual command over the economy. In their
structure the banks express in a concentrated form the entire structure of
modern capital: they combine tendencies of monopoly with tendencies of anarchy.
They organize the miracles of technology, giant enterprises, mighty trusts; and
they also organize high prices, crises and unemployment. It is impossible to
take a single serious step in the struggle against monopolistic despotism and
capitalistic anarchy—which supplement one another in their work of
destruction—if the commanding posts of banks are left in the hands of
predatory capitalists. In order to create a unified system of investments and
credits, along a rational plan corresponding to the interests of the entire
people, it is necessary to merge all the banks into a single national
institution. Only the expropriation of the private banks and the concentration
of the entire credit system in the hands of the state will provide the latter
with the necessary actual, i.e., material resources—and not merely paper and
bureaucratic resources — for economic planning.

The expropriation of the banks in no case implies the expropriation of bank
deposits. On the contrary, the single state bank will be able to create
much more favorable conditions for the small depositors than could the private
banks. In the same way, only the state bank can establish for farmers, tradesmen
and small merchants conditions of favorable, that is, cheap credit. Even more
important, however, is the circumstance that the entire economy—first and
foremost large-scale industry and transport directed by a single financial
staff, will serve the vital interests of the workers and all other toilers.

However, the state-ization of the banks will produce these favorable
results only if the state power itself passes completely from the hands of the
exploiters into the hands of the toilers.